Rahul: No hostility against those who attacked office

Congress leader Mr Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he did not harbour any hostility or anger against the children (SFI activists) who acted in an irresponsible way and vandalised his office in Wayanad district of Kerala.

Mr Gandhi was speaking to reporters after visiting the vandalised office in Kalpetta on Friday. “It was quite an unfortunate thing that had happened. Everywhere in the country you see there is an idea that violence will resolve the problems. But violence never resolves the problems. The youngsters who did it are also our children. They are kids. I don't think they understand the consequences of these actions. We should be forgiving them,” he said.

The Wayanad MP met the party workers, who had suffered injuries in the attack, examined the damaged articles and sat on the office chair after removing the plantain tree placed by the attackers on it.

It is for the first time that he is arriving in his Lok Sabha constituency after his MP’s office here was attacked by the students’ wing of the ruling CPI(M) last Friday over the buffer zone issue.

Mr Gandhi’s office was vandalised by activists of ruling CPM affiliated Students Federation of India (SFI) on June 24.

The SFI activists were protesting against Mr Gandhi’s alleged silence over Court the directive recent Supreme that national parks and wildlife sanctuaries must have an Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of minimum one km from the demarcated boundary of a protected forest.

Earlier, the Congress MP from Wayanad arrived at the Kannur international airport on Friday morning on a three-day visit to his Wayanad constituency. He was welcomed by KPCC president M K Sudhakaran and senior Congress leaders.

Mr Gandhi is scheduled to attend a host of programmes in the district during the next two days.